Creatine Monohydrate, 500g

Description

Creatine monohydrate, 500 grams of micronised powder, a hundred 5 gram servings at about 32 cents each, which is 6.4 cents a gram. Unflavoured, because creatine monohydrate does not need flavouring and sweetener in a tub only costs you grams of creatine. Each lot is assayed for creatinine and dicyandiamide and the sheet is posted on this page.

The numbers on the tub

Why creatine monohydrate rather than the newer salts

Creatine hydrochloride, ethyl ester, nitrate and buffered versions all exist and all cost more per gram of creatine. The published comparisons between them and the monohydrate have not established an advantage for any of them, and several measured the monohydrate as equal or better on retention.

Monohydrate is also the form nearly all of the research used, which means a label and a paper can be compared directly. Paying extra for a form with a thinner literature is a decision rather than an upgrade, and the performance page prices every version by the gram so the difference is visible.

What the research administered, and measured

The standard protocols are 20 grams a day split into four doses for five to seven days, followed by 3 to 5 grams a day, or simply 3 to 5 grams a day from the start without the loading phase. Measured endpoints across that literature include intramuscular phosphocreatine by magnetic resonance spectroscopy, repeated sprint output, resistance exercise performance and lean body mass.

Those are the doses administered and the instruments read in published trials. None of it is a claim about this tub, and the 5 gram serving is on the panel precisely because it is the figure the papers use.

Micronised, and what that does

Milling the powder to a smaller particle size makes it disperse faster in water and settle less at the bottom of a glass. It is the same compound at the same purity: micronisation changes handling, not chemistry. Anyone who has drunk the gritty residue from a non micronised tub will think it worth the difference, and nobody should expect more from it than that.

The two impurity figures

Creatine is manufactured from sarcosine and cyanamide, and two by products matter. Dicyandiamide is a residue of that route. Creatinine is the degradation product that forms over time, particularly in heat and moisture. Both are limited by specification and both are measured and published per lot, rather than covered by a general assurance.

What creatine monohydrate costs per gram, and why that is the figure

Six point four cents a gram in this tub, against roughly 30 cents a gram for the chewable format on the same shelf. Same molecule, same assay, several times the price for a different shape. Creatine monohydrate is one of the clearest cases in the shop for pricing by the unit rather than the container, which is the argument in why price per milligram beats the price on the bottle. Capsules sit between the two on cost and above both on convenience.

Storage, since it degrades in water

Keep the tub dry and closed. Creatine monohydrate in solution converts to creatinine over hours to days, faster when warm, which is why mixing a week of servings in advance is a waste. Mix it when you drink it. In dry powder form it is stable for years.

Who it is sold to

Adults. The tub carries no stimulant and no proprietary blend, and the only ingredient on the panel is the one on the front of it. Anyone with kidney disease should take the question to a clinician rather than to a product page, which is the standard answer here and the correct one.

Testing

Every lot of creatine monohydrate is identity tested and assayed by an independent laboratory, with the creatinine and dicyandiamide figures, heavy metals and microbials on the same certificate. Lots outside specification are withdrawn and the failing report stays public. Reference material on the doses studied is in the NIH exercise and athletic performance fact sheet.